A Day in the Life {of Maternity Leave}

Not that most of you care, but I thought I’d document what a typical day with an (almost) 7 week old baby looks like. We follow Moms on Call, so our entire day really revolves around a strict schedule. I didn’t think I’d ever be that mom who is crazy about following a minute by minute routine, but I tell ya, it works and we are sleeping so I don’t mind. Now, every day doesn’t quite look like this, but if all the stars align, this is what it should look like (which happens maybe 4 days a week).Between 6:00 – 7:00 am: Caroline is up and a bottle is in her mouth. I prepare this bottle the night before so I can sleep in until the second she cries for breakfast. Usually Matt does this feeding so I can sleep in a bit. 7:00 – 9:00 am: Matt fixes me a cup of coffee and kisses us goodbye. Caroline is either fussy for the next two hours on a bad day, or she’s quietly playing on her play mat or swinging so I can stir some instant oatmeal together, pump and reheat the coffee I haven’t sipped on yet. If Caroline dozes off, I’ll respond to emails and run through my blogfeed.9:00 – 10:00 am: Feed Caroline pumped bottle, followed by another 30 minutes of play time or swinging.10:00 – 12 pm: Caroline hopefully naps (in her swing or rock n play sleeper). This nap usually ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Depending on the length of nap time, this may actually be when I eat breakfast if I couldn’t sneak away for 1.5 minutes earlier (which happens more than you’d think). Other things I try and tackle during this time is getting dressed (usually in workout clothes), laundry, clean the bottles from the previous night, blog, meet some mommies in the neighborhood for a walk or squeeze in a quick workout DVD.12:00 – 1:00 pm: Caroline is awake and eating again. After she polishes off 4 ounces or so, I’ll pump before we jump in the car and meet Matt or a girlfriend for lunch and run some errands (Target, Harris Teeter, etc.).1:00 – 3:00 pm: Ideally the munchkin should nap for another two hours. Depending on what we were (or weren’t) able to do during the 10 am nap this may be the time we meet our friends for a walk, blog, do laundry, finish lunch, run errands, etc.3:00 – 4:00 pm: Another bottle and 30 minutes of playtime. I’ll read to Caroline, play with her on her activity mat, take a million pictures of her, etc.4:00 – 5:30 pm: Nap time! Matt walks through the door around 4:30 pm and takes over so I can pump and start prepping dinner (which is usually something super simple these days).5:30 – 6:30 pm: Matt feeds Caroline a bottle, plays with her for 30 minutes and starts rocking her to sleep for her next nap. I shower.6:30 – 8:00 pm: Caroline is usually pretty fussy and doesn’t want to nap so Matt rocks her in the rock n’ play while he eats dinner with the other hand. After dinner I’ll clean up the kitchen and prepare bottles for night time feedings. Matt gets bath time ready.8:00 pm: Caroline is in the tub and Matt does bath duty while I pump.8:30 pm: Matt and I alternate nights rocking Caroline to sleep in her room so we each get that quality time with her. This is one of my favorite parts of the day because she smells so yummy, is tired and just wants to cuddle while she takes her last bottle before bedtime.9:00 pm: Caroline is swaddled by daddy, white noise is blasting and we tip toe out of her room, finish off a glass of wine and collapse into bed.Between 1:00 – 3:00 am: Caroline wakes to feed. I take this shift, which usually lasts anywhere between 25 minutes to an hour.Between 3:00 – 5:00 am: Caroline wake again for another bottle. Matt takes this shift and puts her back to sleep.

Throw in somewhere between 9-12 diaper changes and that’s pretty much it. The days are long but somehow also fly by. Most days I get into bed and wonder what I did all day. Some days that’s nothing and we stay in our pajamas, other days I can get a whole lot done and feel somewhat accomplished. Regardless, I wouldn’t trade these hard, long days for the world.

She is beautiful!! I know that smile makes it all so worth it! I've heard really good things about Moms on Call. I looked into it more when I read about another blogger using them. That's awesome that it's working out so well for you and your family! Those ladies seem to be miracle workers haha

She's looking great, Christina! Sounds like you guys have found a good parental bliss in routine – such a comfort! Even though motherhood is far away for me, I look forward to your posts about life with Caroline, and all your tips and tricks. Have a great day!

This was really interesting! They always say babies eat, sleep, and potty all day and night for the first few months and it looks like that is pretty much true. Caroline is beautiful! You are doing such a great job!

You are doing such a wonderful job! Those newborn days can be long, but oh so sweet. My daughter is 9 months old and we have been home for summer break the last 2 weeks. There are many days I wonder what I did all day and only manage to get a load of laundry done. Enjoy every sweet minute!

I am so proud of you mama – you three are doing so well and I'm so glad you have found a routine that works for you all. We follow a very similar routine (with feeds at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and then bath time and asleep at 7pm) She then wakes at 12am and 3am or from recently just at 1am for night feeds). So wish we were down the road so we could invite you for tea and a play date for our girls xx

I'm so glad you posted this! My little guy is almost 3 weeks old and I'm still working on getting a routine down. Are you exclusively pumping? I am, and I find that following a pumping schedule is the hardest part. It's too easy to skip a pump when things get hectic. That's so great that you are able to get out of the house every day for lunch or to run errands. I need to work on that!

This sounds quite familiar! : ) Lawter is 8 weeks old and about two weeks ago or so, she started skipping a night feeding! She eats somewhere between 7:30-8:30 pm, then wakes sometime between 2:30-3:30 am for a quick 20-30 minute bottle and diaper change, then doesn't wake to feed again til around 7 am! Hope that's coming your way soon so you're not up twice during the night!!

I remember a schedule like this, it all changes so quickly. They drop a feeding and you feel like you have all the time in the world to run errands. Before you know it she will be sleeping through the night. I felt like things got soooooo much easier once we got past the 2 month mark!

"Not that you care"–of course we care!! 🙂 You thought you wouldn't be the mom to follow a minute-by-minute schedule? Really? You are the most on-the-go, Energizer Bunny, getting a million things done by 9 a.m., doing everything by scratch person I know!! Lol I totally though this is the mom you would be which is a WONDERFUL mom!Anyway, boy does this schedule sound familiar!! With the exception of a couple small items, I could have written this myself. Oh my word, I am SO jealous that you are able to get out of the house during maternity leave. I kid you not, I probably spent about 80% of my maternity leave holed up in our home due to the freakishly bad winter we experienced in Michigan. I was too paranoid to take our baby out in it!! 🙁 Grad school in the middle of the maternity leave wasn't ideal either, but hey, we do what we can do! Your little one is so precious and I can already tell she has so much personality! You are a wonderful mama and this was such a fun little read!! <3Cheers,Samara

P.S. 1. Sorry for so many typos in my initial post. 😛 2. I don't know if she has slept for like a 7 or 8 hour stretch yet, but when she does, you will totally freak out the first night. You'll wonder if you should wake her. Don't! Enjoy it and know that more nights like that are to come. Jackson started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks by sheer dumb luck and I couldn't have been happier about it! Your blissful nights of sleep will come back, but unfortunately midnight will still be considered middle of the night for parents who have to succumb the circadian rhythms of baby who wakes up at the same time every morning, haha.

Ahh this brings me back to the newborn days- how quickly you forget! Sounds like you guys have a great schedule going. Having a spring/summer baby is the best since you can get out of the house a lot- that's what I did with my son. I'm dreading having a November baby with cold weather and flu season.

Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in Opera.I'm not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I'd post to let you know.The layout look great though! Hope you get the problem solved soon. CheersPipe marking

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